Adventure Race Slovenia
Team Endurancelife in Slovenia
Mark Bottomley / 02.07.2012
Having been to Slovenia with the Army some 12 or so years ago, I have always longed to return to the beautiful tree covered landscape. Discovering that an adventure race was held there annually, it has been a mission of mine for the last 3 years to put the right team together and race the Explorer category (3 days non stop). Following the conception of Team Endurancelife, 2012 was to be the year.
Team Endurancelife, consisting of Me (Mark Bottomley), Gary Davies, Kris Smith and Natalie Taylor, flew to Slovenia on Wednesday, 2 days before the race start, and commenced with the usual race prep that is required for an expedition race. This was to be a 50 hour race covering a maximum of 440km using 1:50,000 Slovenian maps. We were handed our nine A3 size maps at registration, along with our race book, and over the next day and 2 nights we worked on routes, timings and getting as much meaningful detail on the face of the maps as possible.
The race was to start at the south eastern corner of the Country in a beautiful town called Piran, on the coast. It was then a matter of navigating through a series of checkpoints snaking their way north east to finish at the race HQ in Velenje. Each cp had been allocated a value and 95% of the cps were optional. At various marked intervals along the route maps were “special” stages, either orienteering, caving, skike (like a giant strap on inline skate), abseiling and canyoning (all of which would require a separate map upon your arrival) which could be visited or ignored. The winners would be the highest scoring team that had finished by midday Sunday.
Following a coach shuttle to Piran the race started at 10.30 Friday morning with a special stage of orienteering around the old historic town with its beautiful tall buildings and narrow streets. Then a dip in the warm sea for a 2k swim along the coast following a waterproof map to find sunken cps and diving down up to 5 meters to punch a hole in our race cards.
Flotation devices were allowed, which made for an incredible sight with all manner of lilos, flippers and flotation bags being used to aid athletes’ progress.
A swift trek along the coast led us to our kayaks and an 8k paddle around the headland. We had already decided to drop a cp which would have meant an 8k, out and back, leg in the other direction, and it soon became apparent that many other teams had made the same choice.
An uneventful paddle, albeit in gorgeous sunshine with stunning views and another brief trek took us to the leg I was most dreading – a 6k inline skate section along hilly cycle paths. Having never set foot in a skate before March, I had been doing my best to learn from my children (the blind leading the blind really) in the weeks building up to the race. The other team members had all used them before and I was determined not to be the slowest. One or two wrong selections of route made this section much harder than it needed to be, but I had met my goal and not slowed the team down.
Onto the bike now for a 40 plus km ride with some major height gain, all in 30 degrees heat. A few km into the ride we realised that Kris was not his normal self. Usually he would be a strong cyclist, assisting with towing duties, but he was struggling to hold pace and soon became the weakest team member. Focus now shifted to towing him and carrying his kit, with Natalie doing a sterling job in a bizarre role reversal. He had to take time out on a regular basis to rest and settle his heart rate, throwing water over his head in an attempt to cool down. He could also no longer assist Gary with the bike navigation. A few km later and he erupted, violently retching until he had nearly turned himself inside out. Now we were entering more of a survival situation than a race.
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